Tales of A Confederacy: The Intergalactic Wars
by Bien-128
Summary: Chapter Two, Part 1: The Confederate First Fleet winds up within an alien solar system, and discovers its cousins who had just begun to recover from a brutal war with a genocidal alien race known as the Covenant. Review please! Multicrossover.
1. Prologue: Nothing Left

Tales of a Confederacy: The Intergalactic Wars

Bien Carlos C. Manzares

Prologue: Nothing Left

Crusader-14 'Alexander' ducked behind the husk of a burning tank as 55mm rounds screamed above his head. Explosions threw partially melted chunks of rock and metal onto his shields.

"Alexander-14," he said "requesting fire support!"

A second salvo pummeled the husk; one of the rounds pierced the thinned armor before exploding on the road behind while another exploded just behind where Alexander was hiding.

The trooper stood up and leveled his particle rifle, and fired. A particle bolt lanced from the weapon's barrel and tore into the armor of an enemy soldier, who screamed in pain and fell as his legs were severed from his body. He zoomed in on one of the autocannon's gunners and fired, the man fell, his head vaporized.

A Brawler class gunship descended from the sky and vaporized the emplacement with concentrated plasma and particle fire before one; two and then three trails of smoke rose from the ruined buildings and reached for the gunship. The aircraft shot down two of them before the third missile blew its right antigrav pod apart. The gunship spun uncontrollably into the air and exploded in a fantastic blue-white explosion on the ground.

"Target in sight," Alexander said as a truck lifted from the ruins and hovered away "taking a shot."

Alexander fired three times, the first one taking out the driver behind the armored cockpit, and the other two shredding the power convertor. The trooper crossed the 50 meters dividing him from his target in one leap and tore the doors off its compartment. Inside were three more enemies, he kicked at one and sent him splattering into the wall. The other drew an energy blade and slashed at him; the trooper dodged and fired one particle bolt into his skull. The third armed a grenade and lunged at him, Alexander caught the man and tossed him out of the truck, where the grenade turned him into shredded meat.

There was a single container inside the truck, Alexander ripped the cover off and tossed it away. Inside was a single cylinder. A holographic display displayed a countdown.

"Mission scrubbed." He said "They've armed it."

The timer ticked to zero and the world went white for Alexander.

---

Admiral Viktor Miroslav watched a bright light; a second sun form on the surface of the Solaria, oceans boiled into steam, soil turned into glass and the atmosphere was ripped away while the very crust of the planet itself cracked and shattered. Then the planet split apart.

"Kill them," Viktor said "make them pay for what they did."

"Fleet III," a voice said over the comm "disengage and form on the _Sunrise Dawning_. Let the bastards have their victory party, but make them remember that this is not over yet."

"All ships," Viktor ordered "launch the _Tempest_ missiles and fall back."

The entire fleet fired its entire payload of _Tempest _missiles and jumped towards the _Sunrise Dawning_, each missile was 100 meters long, and could move at almost half the speed of light. Each carried dozens of antimatter warheads, clustered around a massive _Sunrise_ Singularity Generator.

The barrage of missiles streaked towards the enemy fleet, the antimatter warheads jettisoned from the missiles and saturated the area with matter-antimatter reactions, irradiating several ships and destroying many others. The missiles continued on and were sucked into the singularities that they created. Ships were pulled in and torn apart by the massive gravitational forces, and then the singularities collapsed in bursts of pure, uncontrolled energy, vaporizing several hundred ships.

---

High-Admiral Kazimir Li'var Miroslav watched Fleet-III fall into defensive positions around his ship, the _Sunrise Dawning_; a massive hundred-kilometer long Sovereign.

The ship bristled with weapons and defensive batteries. And her armor was able to withstand the temperatures and pressures at the core of a Blue Giant star and her shields could weather far more punishment. She could hold and service multiple Destroyer class warships in her massive hull, alongside almost a thousand strike-craft and corvettes. She could take on multiple fleets on her own and win without a single scratch on her hull.

The ship had a small vertical and horizontal profile and her angular, bladelike form had a split running from her bow to amidships, which housed its main weapon; a Phased Antimatter Beam Array, just one shot at one percent of its output can shatter a planet like glass; thus the weapon has never been fired in anger. Her immense power requirements required her to have several Singularity Reactors which supplanted an ancient device that tapped into a dimension made purely of energy.

She was the flagship of the Confederacy of United Suns, a massive Confederation of Unions spanning three galaxies, bordering her were the United Galactic Democracy and the United Nations among the Stars, and both were her allies. The three were fighting for a group of galaxies known as the Resource Wells, which were held by a strange alien empire.

Kazimir looked grimly at the holoconsole, Strike Groups Delta Gamma and Beta Sigma had just disappeared from the screen as the fleet they were engaging was reduced to a quarter of its size.

"Enemy ships jumping in," the female Sensors operator announced "it's a Goliath squadron."

Kazimir cursed and began giving orders.

"Fleet II and III, move to flank the designated targets."

Kazimir highlighted two of the Goliaths.

"Helm, set heading to Goliath 3. WEPSCOM, fire Beam One on the Array at 10 percent power when the ship is in your sights."

The ship turned to face her target, and a pencil-thin beam lanced from the split. The Goliath caught the beam with its engine block and exploded violently in a burst of light.

"Choose your targets and fire the secondary Antimatter Beams on my mark."

---

Overlord Risentsu clicked his mouth in frustration, the faster Confederates were literally running circles around his Goliaths and their flagship had just destroyed another with one shot.

"Slave!" he growled "How can we defeat that monstrosity?"

A woman wearing a black robe stepped out of the darkness, a compeller was clipped around her neck.

"I do not know master," she said fearfully "the ship always wins."

The woman shrank under Risentsu's glare and went to her knees, bowing in shame before retreating out of the bridge.

_"There is something wrong with the compeller again," _Risentsu thought _"I am going to kill the Crafter who gave me the unit."_

---

Kazimir winced as one of the Goliaths destroyed a carrier with its beamers. The cruiser guarding it retaliated by firing her antimatter cannon, a flash of purple-blue light exited the split in the ship's bow and detonated on the enemy's hull. The stricken ship split apart, throwing radioactive debris into space.

"Helm," Kazimir ordered "move to engage the enemy ships, use a circling broadside. WEPSCOM, ready the particle weapons, I want all of them to be at 100 percent output when we get there."

The ship quickly closed the distance before circling the enemy fleet, particle cannons bombarding the flanks and sterns of the enemy craft. Many of the ships retaliated, but their weapons barely even harmed the shields.

Several of the Goliaths were engulfed in bursts of blazing fire while others merely winked out of existence. Two, three and then five of the ships fell. And the last Goliath disappeared into the realm of slipspace.

"There's nothing else to do here but mourn." Kazimir said over the comm "Let's go."

The armada engaged their jump drives and vanished into whirlpools of sparkling blue-white light, leaving a shattered planet and a massive debris field behind.

Deep within one of the husks, a single piece of machinery activated and used the last of its energy to fulfill an unknown function before detonating in a brilliant explosion.


	2. Chapter One: Dust and Echoes

Chapter One: Dust and Echoes

A planet of vibrant blues and vivid greens hung like a jewel against the backdrop of space, a thin ring encircling the planet like a faint strand of spider's silk. Two moons orbited the planet, the innermost one was covered by lush green forests and tall snow-capped mountains, and sparkling blue oceans and vast reefs of coral. The outermost one orbited opposite its sibling. It was made completely of impassive gray rock and dust. Faint lines crisscrossed it like small cracks found on a worn stone found on the countryside.

Captain Miranda Keyes watched through the viewport, the Master Chief standing behind her.

"Cortana," she asked "is there anything new."

A blue hologram in the form of a woman materialized over a holotank, mathematical, Greek, and strangely, Forerunner symbols ran across her semi-translucent body.

"There's nothing but dust and echoes." She said "Wait, I detect several quantum anomalies forming."

Near the horizon of the rock-moon, several thousand pinpricks of light flashed into existence, Cortana zoomed in and saw that the pinpricks were whirlpools made of scintillating blue light.

---

"Sir," NAVCOM reported "the fleet has veered off-course."

"FLEETCOM reporting," a female officer spoke "we've lost half of our fleet. Battlegroups Two to Six and Nine to Fifteen have disappeared. We only have one Fleetyard and a dozen Tenders remaining."

"DACON reports several microfractures in the drive assembly, nothing serious."

The High-Admiral hissed a curse and ordered the fleet to drop out of slipspace.

---

The pinpricks of light winked out of existence, Cortana routed power from the drives to the sensors.

"Several contacts," the AI said "about half a thousand, unknown IFF."

---

The fleet materialized in the space above a rocky planetoid, most of the ships in the fleet were crippled or damaged in some way. The _Sunrise Dawning_ herself lost two of her five sensor arrays from the sudden transition from slipspace to realspace.

"Bro," Viktor's voice came over the comm "where are we? STELLAR is fucked out and the sensors are gone. The ship's blind."

Kazimir opened the STELLAR databanks and came up with a set of question marks.

"The STELLAR here's fucked out too." Kazimir replied "We're probably in the middle of nowhere."

"Scout Frigate _Eagleye _reporting," a female voice broke the conversation "I detect a Sloop class vessel closing in, unknown designation, heavy damage visible."

"All ships," Kazimir said "treat the contact as neutral unless stated otherwise."

---

Captain Keyes moved her ship closer to the fleet.

"Cortana," she ordered "hail them on all channels."

---

"Sir," Sensors reported "I've got a ping on the target, it's sending out signals. Putting them on."

A static laced transmission burst through the comm.

"This is UNS- gate Forw- to- Dawn." A female voice said in Northerner Dialect "Requ- ackup."

Kazimir, who knew Northerner- did a double-take.

_"We may not be as far away as we thought we were."_ He thought

He keyed the Hail icon and waited.

---

"Ma'am," Cortana said "they're hailing us in English!"

A man's voice with a strange Russian-British hybrid accented voice came over the comm.

"This is Confederate High-Admiral- " the transmission dissolved into static "of the _Sunrise Dawning_, state your- nd affiliation."

Keyes cleared her throat.

---

"This is UNSC Frigate Designation FFG-201 _Forward Unto Dawn_," a female said "we are in need of assistance."

Kazimir keyed the Drone Launch icon. A screen came up to his left. It read:

Tube-1: Misfire

Tube-2: Misfire

Tube-3: Jammed

Tube-4: Launch

A sensor drone launched from the ship and streaked towards the stricken ship. Another display opened and showed Kazimir the video feed. He saw the split bow of the ship along with several scorched holes dotting her flanks; a particularly large hole caught his attention.

"Forward Unto Dawn," he said "we are deploying our Fleetyard to assist. Stand by."

The tactical maps showed the Fleetyard _Raptamei_ activate her microjump drives and appear beside the small ship.

"Sir," the First-Mate spoke up "it is inadvisable to spend what meager resources we have left on such a small ship."

"There you are wrong Alissa," Kazimir replied "I programmed the sensor drone to do a close scan of the planet and one of the asteroid belts. The planet appears to be habitable, and the asteroid belt is rich with usable metals."

Kazimir keyed the communications console.

"Tenders _Vorrina _and _Selisona_," he said "launch your harvester drones. You have Iala to collect."

A pair of whoops signaled their acknowledgement. The two tenders split off and sped towards the asteroid field, launching their harvesters along the way.

"_Marunae_, _Luniel_ and _Nivaos_," he continued "launch prospector and biographer teams to the planet and its moons. Establish forward bases on their surfaces."

---

Keyes saw a bright light wink into existence and fade out, then a massive ship suddenly appear beside hers. The ship made even the Covenant Supercarriers pale in comparison, by her estimates it was almost 75 kilometers long.

"This is Fleetyard _Raptamei_ to _Forward Unto Dawn_," a voice said "stand by for docking."

---

Captain Johanas Verr'na Elison activated the docking system, and several gravity manipulators activated to guide the ship into the split in his ship's bow.

Several scanners made detailed scans of the ship, and a holographic projection appeared to his right, a 3-Dimensional model of the ship along with schematics of the ship.

"Begin repairs." He ordered

---

Keyes saw several shafts of light extend from the fleetyard onto her ship, forming a wireframe model of the frigate. Several drones sped out of several ports within the split. Cortana did a scan on one of the drones; a hologram appeared in the pedestal. The drone was arrowhead shaped, a small black dome underneath contrasted against the glinting silver hull.

---

Johanas watched as the drones methodically cut into the edges surrounding the several holes in the gunmetal-gray hull. Titanium armor composites were patched onto the hull; she would still need a complete refit inside the _Sunrise Dawning_.

"This is _Raptamei_ to _Sunrise_," he said "the ship is ready to launch."

"Launch it." Kazimir replied

The gravity tethers holding the _Forward Unto Dawn_ in place disengaged, a single gravity beam gave the ship a light push and she slid slowly out of the fleetyard's maw.

---

"_Forward Unto Dawn_," Kazimir said "please allow us to commence docking procedures on your ship."

The _Sunrise Dawning _engaged her mircojump unit and appeared in front of the _Raptamei_ in a flash of light.

---

Keyes gasped as she saw the _Sunrise Dawning_ with her own eyes. The ship was huge, if the _Raptamei_ could make the Covenant tremble, the _Sunrise_ could make them turn and run.

The ship moved to flank hers and as she looked. A massive bay opened, the ship slowed to a stop just as the doors completely slid open. A pair of clamps extended from the bay and gripped her ship. Keyes watched in amazement as the _Forward Unto Dawn_ was drawn in, dozens of ships ranging from half a kilometer to a kilometer and a half were lined up vertically and horizontally.

She watched as her ship was brought into one of the rows of ships. Written in plain English was the designation _FFG/M-01021 Stormbearer_. Two walkways extended parallel to the clamps and latched onto the docking ports.

A Week Later

Keyes listened as the fleet's commander, and apparently; his country's president toured her around the massive flagship.

"This is the Garden," he said, pointing to a door "we come here to relax."

The door slid open and Keyes was greeted with a small forest that was lit and warmed by a miniature sun. Wooden walkways crisscrossed platform to platform, while ladders and stairs connected some of the platforms to the ground, and sometimes with other platforms higher above. Birds flew above, while many more roosted in their nests, singing warmly and energetically.

She saw two officers dueling with dulled blades, while several more were firing laser markers at each other.

"They're playing Tag," he said "it's a co-operation and teamwork exercise. Those officers are from the 109th and 72nd Infantry, the duelers are Ver'sa Clansmen."

"Clansmen?" Keyes asked

"The Confederacy," Kazimir replied "or known politically as the Confederacy of United Suns is basically a Confederation of Unions. We operate on one set of basic laws and a single currency, which is basically the Confederacy, while the Clans; or Unions are free to extend upon the base."

Keyes saw Kazimir take a small stick from one of his pockets and hold it out in his palm, she heard the flapping of wings and a large, metallic bird was suddenly perched on his wrist. The avian pecked at the stick and chirped excitedly.

"This bird," he said "the Phi'ex is the bird on the Confederate Crest." He showed her the triangular crest on his uniform.

Kazimir stroked the bird's head and it chirped warmly, the bird looked curiously at Keyes and chirped. Keyes slowly, cautiously extended her arm, and the bird perched itself on her wrist. It was surprisingly light. The avian began singing, and soon afterwards other birds joined in chorus.

"Folklore says that when a Phi'ex sings," Kazimir said "the person it is singing for will be blessed with good luck. Keyes, you're lucky." He said with a smile.

---

The Master Chief looked at row upon row of weapons, ranging from what looked like pistols and carbines to sniper rifles and anti-armor. He carefully lifted one weapon from its rack and inspected it; the weapon had a scope integrated with a battery display, diagnostics screen and compass. The stock was extendable and there were mounting points for several attachments.

"Wow Chief!" Cortana said "The upgrades they did on me are amazing, I just decoded the Index without even going double-digits on my processor usage! And their techs say that my lifespan in virtually infinite."

The Chief smiled inwardly to himself.

"Good for you." He grunted

"You seem to be in a good mood today Chief," the AI quipped "did they give you presents?"

He decided to stay silent. Instead, the Chief picked another rifle up. It was in a bullpup configuration, there was a small box slung underneath the weapon's barrel. He pressed a button on the side and a pair of blades extended from the box, the Chief pressed it again and the blades retracted.

The Chief walked out of the doors at the far end of the armory and he was greeted by the sight of several tanks bipedal robots. The tanks reminded him of the Old Earth M1A2 Abrahams, but instead of tracks, they floated on antigravity fields. The robots were massive bipedal killing machines: Missile launchers, arm pods filled with weaponry and turrets were mounted on them.

A techie noticed the Chief and walked over to him.

"Those are the Cobras;" he said "they weigh about 175 tons and can reach 125 miles per hour on a full load. Missiles, particle cannons, plasma projectors, railguns, you can mount anything on them."

---

Two Cobras trudged through the jungle, their massive bodies simply snapping trees in half.

"Cobra One to base," a pilot said "we've got unknown bogies. They're plasma wielding buggers, small guys that like to explode being lead by furry apes. Not much of a challenge but they simply swarmed us with their plasma mortars and quads!"

Cobra One fired the railgun mounted on his left arm at a purple beetle-like hover vehicle and fired his jump packs.

"Cobra Two ejecting!" The second pilot said as her 'mech was speared by several beams

A bright flash of light signaled that the fusion cores had detonated, rendering the vehicle a pile of useless slag.

Cobra One saw one of the communications spires of the forward base, he fired his jump packs again. The bipedal rose into the air in a column of smoke and fire, turned 180 degrees and landed in a crouch.

Missiles roared into the sky while a particle beam burst from the right arm as the railgun tore trenches into the ground. The chin-mounted plasma cannons whined and sent miniature suns into the forest. Two, three, eight and then 15 of the beetle-like vehicles exploded into plumes of blue-white fire while two of the quadrupedal walkers crashed to the ground in dying moans, throwing the crew on their decks to the ground. The last walker was torn apart as several anti-armor missiles pierced its armor and exploded inside.

"Command," he said "you may want to send a few salvage teams. They may not find much though."

Cobra Two's ejection pod slammed into the ground in front of him, the hatch opened and revealed a smiling woman.

"I saw all the fireworks!" she yelled "Too bad I missed it!"


	3. Chapter Two, Part One: Purple and Silver

Chapter Two, Part One: Purple and Silver

A beam of yellow light lanced through space and cut into an asteroid, the lump of rock cracked and split apart. The Covenant Carrier hiding behind it caught the beam with its shields, which held for only a split second under the tide of energy that suddenly washed over the craft before failing and letting the deadly stream through. The ship was reduced to shards of half-melted, irradiated metal as the beam faded.

Confederate fighter craft tore through the darkness of space. Ion trails in their wake, the sleek, angular fighters weaved through waves of Covenant Seraphs. Plasma bolts slashed after them, only to dissipate harmlessly against their shields.

One of the fighters flipped over and fired its particle guns; artificial lightning tore into a Seraph, gutting it. The dead Seraph smashed into another Seraph and both disappeared in a brilliant blue explosion.

James-one of the fighter aces stationed on the _Sunrise Dawning_-looked at his rear display. Pyotr, one of his wingmen had a swarm of the teardrop shaped fighters tailing him.

"Oi!" he yelled "Pyotr, you got some shinies on your tail. They want to blind you with their dazzlers!"

Pyotr chucked back and switched his fighter to inertial and killed the thrusters, then flipped end-over-end and fired his shard cannons.

High-explosive shards of crystal slammed into the Seraphs, detonating against the shrouds of energy that protected them from harm. Some exploded into smaller shards, while others vanished in brilliant bursts of energy. Some of the Seraphs veered away in ballistic arcs, trailing smoke and flames. While the rest kept on going, their shields only partially drained.

However, those shots were meant to distract them, not destroy them outright. Pyotr revved his Shredder for a few seconds before pulling the trigger. Hundreds of fragmenting shells poured into the Seraph formation; fighters popped like balloons or were reduced to shreds of metal no bigger than a man's fist.

"Splash fifteen!" Pyotr yelled with joy, "C'mon you genocidal buggers! Bring it on."

As if Pyotr's challenge was answered, a Covenant Supercarrier burst out from a slipspace rift and angled towards the Confederate fighters.

"Colin," James said, mentally sighing at Pyotr as a tide of fighters washed over them "we need some help over here."

Two flashes of light heralded the appearance of a _Tempest_ class Missile Destroyer and her _Guardian_ Assault Frigate escort.

The enemy ship almost immediately recognized the threat and fired its plasma cannons, three miniature suns burned their way through space to splash almost harmlessly on the frigate's shields. The ship responded in kind, particle lances stabbed through the blackness and arced on the enemy's shields.

The two ships began circling the carrier like wolves about to take down a stag. There was a brief lull as plasma cannons recycled, then the stag charged with its antlers. The smaller wolf dodged out of the way and lashed out with her claws. Particle lances tore through the Covenant shields and dug deep trenches in the carrier's armor.

James killed the thrusters while flipping over, catching the Seraphs off guard. Tracking particle guns fired, lightning flashed and two of the fighter craft were gutted. Pyotr flashed by, his shredder rounds doing a good job at decimating the swarms of Covenant.

The pilot heard the collision alarm go off and jerked his fighter to the right, a Seraph sped by, its guns firing into space. James promptly blew the fighter apart with his particle guns.

The frigate slashed at the Supercarrier's engines with her particle lances, melting two of the pods shut while the destroyer poured missiles into its launch bays, explosions rippled through the ship's superstructure as munitions and power cells cooked off. Plasma conduits burst, melting the decks into slag. The stag let out a dying moan as the carrier vanished in a burst of light.

James fired two of his missiles at one of the enemy strikecraft. The Seraph rolled away and dodged one of the missiles, only to catch the other missile with its drives. The pilot jinked his fighter to the right to avoid the flaming debris and continued his search for more hostiles.

---

Kazimir heaved a sigh as he keyed the firing controls to 'Free'. He hated the 'Die heretics!' type of religious nut, they lost their reason quite easily and usually bit off more than they can chew. But with the rest of the fleet escorting the tenders and the fleetyard, he had to put the fear of Morev into them.

Particle lances slashed through space as the ancient warship's guns began singing the hymn of death. Explosions peppered the skies as the silver and purple ships crumbled under the barrage. Hundreds of microstars splashed against the _Sunrise Dawning_'s shields, barely even tickling the ship.

Two of their carriers fell under the onslaught, cut neatly in half by the high-powered particle beams that served as the ship's main offensive cannons. Snare drums provided a thunderous staccato beat as the particle guns came on-line and swatted smaller craft out of the skies with impunity while beams crisscrossed the blackness of space. However, the enemy did not seem to be willing to retreat.

_So it's a war of attrition then?_ Kazimir thought, then he heaved another sigh. He angled the ship so that it was exactly broadside to the enemy ships and launched a single _Tempest. _As before, the missile jettisoned its sub-munitions and allowed the singularity that it kept to go out of control. Ships were pulled in, torn apart and eventually spaghettified as they were drawn nearer to the event horizon.

One ship remained, and then there were none as it vanished into slipspace.

Kazimir turned to Keyes as he rubbed a hand through his hair, his way of showing exasperation. _As if we had enough of them back home_, he mentally told himself.

"Well," he said "that leaves the matter of getting you home."

The High-Admiral saw that Keyes was as white as a ghost and frozen in shock. _Must have been the Tempest_, he thought.

___________________________ AN: I will be posting my chapters part by part, as school is taking up most of my time. So instead of keeping you guys waiting, I will post in small chunks that will later be merged when the chapter is finished. Thanks and RNR please!


End file.
